WELCOME TO THE OFFICIAL RICHARD E GERSTEIN JUSTICE BUILDING BLOG. THIS BLOG IS DEDICATED TO JUSTICE BUILDING RUMOR, HUMOR, AND A DISCUSSION ABOUT AND BETWEEN THE JUDGES, LAWYERS AND THE DEDICATED SUPPORT STAFF, CLERKS, COURT REPORTERS, AND CORRECTIONAL OFFICERS WHO LABOR IN THE WORLD OF MIAMI'S CRIMINAL JUSTICE. THIS BLOG HAS BEEN CALLED "THE DEFINITIVE BLOG ON MIAMI CRIMINAL LAW" BY THE NY TIMES, THE WASHINGTON POST, THE POPE, AND DONALD TRUMP WHO ALSO ONCE SAID IT WAS "REALLY GREAT". POST YOUR COMMENTS, OR SEND RUMPOLE A PRIVATE EMAIL AT HOWARDROARK21@GMAIL.COM

Sunday, May 16, 2010

SMILE. IT'S MONDAY

In case you had any questions about the matter, here's proof, in his own words, that Pat Buchanan is an anti-semtic nut: From his syndicated column:

"If Kagan is confirmed, Jews, who represent less than 2 percent of the U.S. population, will have 33 percent of the Supreme Court seats."

GLICK REDUX

Who was that Judge in bond hearing court last week? Well several longtime readers have written in to alert us that it was retired Judge Lenny Glick presiding over bond hearings.

Pro Se criticisms:

Here's what NY State Supreme Court Justice Carol Bergman told a pro se client who was about to defend himself in a first degree murder case in NYC: (From the NY Times )

“You don’t know how to ask a question,” Justice Berkman told him in State Supreme Court. “You don’t know how to offer things into evidence. You keep making stupid speeches. You keep saying you are good at this. You are not. I do not say this to insult you.”

We known more than a few lawyers who could have been the recipient of that speech.

And we leave you on this Monday with this:

Your worst enemy cannot harm you as much as your own unguarded thoughts. Develop the mind of equilibrium. You will always be getting praise and blame, but do not let either affect the poise of the mind: follow the calmness, the absence of pride. - Sutta Nipata

20 comments:

Anonymous
said...

How did a retired Judge (on a Judge's salary) afford to buy close to $30 million in art at the Christie's auction in New York a few days ago as per the N.Y. TIMES lead article on Jonathan Colby? See the attached. I want to be a Judge!

I am not really sure that Mr. Buchanan is an actual anti-semite, or more correctly put, that he is anti-Jewish.

I honestly think he knows better and doesn't believe half of the stuff that comes out of his mouth, but that he just doesn't engage his brain before he thinks. He is afraid of becoming old and irrelevant so periodically he has to make stupid comments so people can talk about him again. Bad publicity is better than no publicity at all.

again its justice thomas who comesto the aid of criminal defendants. first in the raucher then booker then crawford and now in he disents against the adam walsh law. the liberals on the court are not so liberal.

Justices Bar Life Terms for Youths Who Haven’t Killed ..... (from the NYT):

The Supreme Court has ruled that teenagers may not be locked up for life without chance of parole if they haven't killed anyone.

By a 5-4 vote Monday, the court says the Constitution requires that young people serving life sentences must at least be considered for release.

The court ruled in the case of Terrance Graham, who was implicated in armed robberies when he was 16 and 17. Graham, now 22, is in prison in Florida, which holds more than 70 percent of juvenile defendants locked up for life for crimes other than homicide.

"The state has denied him any chance to later demonstrate that he is fit to rejoin society based solely on a nonhomicide crime that he committed while he was a child in the eyes of the law," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in his majority opinion. "This the Eighth Amendment does not permit."

Chief Justice John Roberts agreed with Kennedy and the court's four liberal justices about Graham. But Roberts said he does not believe the ruling should extend to all young offenders who are locked up for crimes other than murder; he was a "no" vote on the ruling.

Life sentences with no chance of parole are rare and harsh for juveniles tried as adults and convicted of crimes less serious than killing, although roughly three dozen states allow for the possibility of such prison terms. Just over 100 prison inmates in the United States are serving those terms, according to data compiled by opponents of the sentences.

Those inmates are in Florida and seven other states -- California, Delaware, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska and South Carolina -- according to a Florida State University study. More than 2,000 other juveniles are serving life without parole for killing someone. Their sentences are not affected by Monday's decision.

Thomas criticized the majority for imposing "its own sense of morality and retributive justice" on state lawmakers and voters who chose to give state judges the option of life-without-parole sentences.

WorldNetDaily is one of those right-wing whack job "Christian Conservative" web sites, and Buchanan is probably a liberal by their standards. If the folks at WorldNetDaily had their way, all elected and government officials would be White male Protestants, with a Catholic thrown in here and there (but not in a very powerful post) and a few token women placed in figurehead positions.

As for judges--or panels of judges for that matter--I could care less as to race, ethnicity, gender, religion, so forth. I want knowledge of the law, fairness and myself and to be treated respecfully, provided I (and my client) show the bench proper respect.

It is established again that somehow even those justices who appear to have a narrow view of what the constitution says, understand that there are those times when the court must determine what does and does not fit within a definition what the constitution means.

Also Roberts has shown himself to be not so much of an idealogue as result oriented. Roberts takes a singular fact pattern and decides the case, not on the greater principle, but on the narrow facts. There is a disconnect and lack of understanding of the greater implications of everything that court does.

As far as Thomas (and Scalia by concurrence in the dissent)is concerned, where was this 10th Amendment outrage in Bush v. Gore.

Jonathan left the bench when he was "made an offer he couldn't refuse." He joined a prestigious law firm that handled high end personal injury, medical malpractice and wrongful death cases and he made a ton of money.

He currently works for the "Cochran" firm. That is a network of lawyers, include now deceased Johnny Cochran (of OJ Simpson fame), that set up around the country over the past decade. One of the offices is located in Miami and run by Colby's partner, Scott Leeds. They used to operate as Leeds & Colby and before that I believe it was Spence, Payne, Masington, etc etc

From the article:

Christie's Auction ...

Once Christie’s won the brand-name Crichton collection, it was able to rope in other blue-chip property, among them several top Warhols. An old-fashioned bidding war broke out when “Silver Liz,” a classic 1963 image of Hollywood glamour, came up for sale. Five bidders wanted it, including Jon Colby, a Miami bidder standing by the door and raising his paddle. Christie’s expected it to bring $10 million to $15 million; Mr. Colby lost out to Dominique Levy, a Manhattan dealer who paid $18.3 million. “There will be others,” Mr. Colby said after the hammer fell.

And indeed there were. Mr. Colby took home “Holly Solomon,” a 1963 nine-image canvas of the late art dealer, for $5.4 million, a bargain since it had been estimated at $7 million to $12 million. Sotheby’s sale on Wednesday night will have yet more Warhols, including a 1986 self-portrait being sold by the fashion designer Tom Ford, which is expected to exceed its high $15 million estimate.

and then:

Sotheby's Auction ....

At Sotheby’s the next night, the bidder, by now identified as Miami-based medical malpractice lawyer Jonathan Colby, could be seen in a busy skybox in the southwest corner of the room. Still, no one (not even the Rubells, who sat in an adjacent skybox) seemed to actually know him—an unusual situation in the cozy, predictable cadre of high-end collectors. Every so often, Colby would ceremoniously descend from the loge to the auction-house floor, where he would loom auspiciously. Several times he bid, crossing his arms and shaking his head when he reached his limit (as high as $27 million, when underbidding a Rothko), high-fiving his partner when he won (twice, on an early-’60s Joan Mitchell and a 2005 stainless steel Anish Kapoor). It was an inspired performance.

to 5:52 pm...Your opinion is uninformed and false. I have tried numerous cases in front of Judge Glick and he always gave me a great trial. Yes, his sentences can be harsh but that is not uncommon in the building. As an aside, he is also a travel and food connoisseur.

3d DCA Watch -- Bye Bye Bunker Edition!
-
So one time in bunker camp the Resplendently Robed Ones™ decided to pretty
much chuck the month of December and go explore the beautiful environs of *Centra...